When my daughter was born I was given a handknit baby sweater that had a zipper in the back and a hood. I've been looking for a pattern to make one. Any suggestions on where to look? I love the zipper in the back because it makes putting on the sweater easy.

Take any crew neck baby cardigan with a hood, swap the fronts to the back and split the hood up the back. Install the zipper, but remember this little trick. Sewing a zipper into stretchy knitted fabric can be a pain in the gluteus. Install the zipper on 2 pieces of grosgrain or softer satin ribbon, then whip stitch the ribbon to the sweater.

My mom has made about a thousand of these-- I have two for my kids, and I've made one for a friend. They are absolutely fabulous, and easy, too. I have an ancient xerox of the pattern-- don't know where it came from, though. The one we use is the "knitted Hooded sweater" by Bev Dillon.